Black Creek Parkway ProposalA Less Intrusive Alternative to the Often Abandoned I-170 Extension

I-170

• I-170 was never meant to end at I-64• Cost Overruns Shelved Southward Expansion• 2 Proposed Routes were created one following

creek, the other follow railroad right of way• Several Attempts at Resuming Construction

met with Strong Opposition

Opposition Concerns

• Noisy• Ugly/Blight• Leads to Urban Sprawl• Interferes with Walk-able Routes• Property Loss

Extension Benefits

• Allows southern residents convenient access to Central Corridor

• Reduce pollution caused by Stop and Go Traffic

• Reduces Traffic from 3 Alternative Major Streets

Original Plan

• Follow Black Creek with 6 Lane Interstate• Consumes 152 Homes, 208 Apartments, 43

Businesses and 3 Parks

Changes Since Original Proposal

• Brentwood Promenade claimed nearly 80 of the Affected Homes Already

• MetroLink built over railroad route, leaving only Black Creek Alternative.

• Venture Store long shuttered (9 months after County Councilman Kurt Odenwald used it as an example of loss from Interstate Proposal…Don’t Worry… He is no longer in office… he’s a Circuit Court Judge now!).

Determining Original Route

• No County Proposal Map Available

• Only Map comes from 1990 Newspaper Article

• Georeferenced Map, Traced Routes, Inaccuracies Manually corrected based on verbal details listed in several Newspaper Articles

Methods for Determining Interstate Effects

• Using Traced Original Black Creek Route• 120ft Buffer created to represent 240 average

width of 6 lane Interstate• County Parcels Selected which overlap buffer• Interstate would now only affect 93 properties,

most would need to be completely razed• Property Values lost would equal $82 Million

Dollars

Methods for Determining Parkway Effects

• Traced Original Black Creek Route• 40ft Buffer created to represent 80ft average

width of 4 lane Parkway similar to Forest Park Parkway

• County Parcels Selected which overlap buffer• Interstate would now only affect 73 properties• If all represented lost Property, Values lost would

equal $72 Million Dollars• Most Properties would not be completely lost

Comparisons

Comparisons

Effects of Parkway Substitute

• Total Losses would include 2 Houses, 12 Vacant/Agricultural Tracts along Black Creek Flood Plain and 1 Brentwood Park

• 7 Houses would loose some backyard property• 2 Parks would lose approximately 1/3 total

area• 1 Apartment Complex and 8 Industrial Parks

would lose portions of their parking lots.

Opposition Concerns Mitigated

• Eye-sore creek replaced with eye-sore Parkway• Commuter Cars only and reduced speed limits create

less noise• Introduction of Stead Speed Route reduces stop and go

traffic on 3 major street alternatives, thus reducing pollution from emissions

• Elevated Parkway would actually block view of Industrial Courts(and other blights) from many neighborhoods

• Property Loss very minimal

Conclusion

• Parkway would provide many of the long sought after benefits while minimizing the effects on local residents

• Richmond Heights, Maplewood, and Brentwood could all see increased tax revenue as Parkway would conveniently bring commuters straight to the heart of their retail districts